JetBlue expanding wireless e-mail, surfing options

No, you can't surf the whole wide Web yet, but the airline is at least expanding the number of e-mail accounts you can check, along with in-flight shopping on Amazon, to boot.

CNET News.com reports that starting this week, passengers on the Wi-Fi-equipped BetaBlue plane (which flies various trans-continental routes for JetBlue) will get free access to their Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, and Windows Live Mail accounts, while corporate fliers will be able to log onto their Exchange accounts.

Meanwhile, BetaBlue passengers will also be able to shop over a bare-bones version of Amazon.

The BetaBlue Airbus A320, which went wireless last December, previously only gave passengers access to Yahoo! and BlackBerry e-mail, plus Yahoo! IM.

Unfortunately, there's still no word on when JetBlue will offer Wi-Fi access on the rest of its flights. Meanwhile, we're still waiting for airlines such as Alaska Airlines America, Southwest, and Virgin America to roll out in-flight Wi-Fi (for pay, mind you, as opposed to free for JetBlue's service).

But hey, look on the bright side—for now, at least, you're still free to watch movies, play Sudoku, or otherwise zone out during your flight without the office bugging you about that TPS report.

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JetBlue adds more e-mail options to in-flight Wi-Fi [CNET News.com]